Are you a public speaker? Do you wish to become a great public speaker? Do you desire to speak to people and deliver your passionate message to your audience? As a public speaker just like many others you are always faced with problem of communicating with your audience.
To be a successful public speaker you have to pick your audience i.e. the class of people you desire to speak to and the people that will benefit from your message. You should focus your attention on marketing yourself to the particular audience or class of people.
A public speaker has to specify a niche. This is a mistake that many public speakers make; they try to reach out to everyone. Generally real wealth and lasting success in public speaking begins with you focusing on a niche. If you are a public speaker and you focus on marketing to everyone now is the time to change that perception. Here are tips to help you develop yourself on a niche.
Focus more in a specific topic or niche. You have to get practical here. If you are good in speaking to college students, motivating and inspiring them to their own benefit, it will only make more sense if you would market your public speaking on this topic and to this group of people instead of generalising your efforts. So your attention and energy should be focused in getting your message out to college coordinators who book public speakers at college and universities. It’s simple; what messages do you have to offer, who wants to hear your message and what market will benefit most from your message.
Design some good promotional materials. All of your marketing materials should be designed to relate to the public speaking niche you are targeting i.e. college students. You should make sure that the information contained in your speaking brochure is focused on helping students succeed. You should also make sure that your marketing materials are designed for your targeted niche. You should design your marketing materials in such a way that they target the niche that you have chosen.
Get involved with the market movers. The most effective way to get booked for public speaking engagement is to find the decision makers for your niche. You should not go to a college and give your brochure to just anybody may be a professor, instead relate with the college coordinator. The college coordinator is in charge of booking public speakers. There are also local organisations which you can join and whose membership include thousand of college coordinators who pay public speakers to speak at colleges. You need to know, who are the decision takers/makers for the public speaking topic/niche you am targeting to go into.
Write articles for publications. A good number of public speakers run various ads to market their services. People would perceive that if you have written an article then you are an expert on your public speaking topic. You should always write articles for qualification about your niche and then you won’t find the need to run ads. You should read articles written by speakers and write numerous articles for publications that are read by decision-makers in your niche, the college and university market. Use these steps to market yourself.
1. There is need to determine which publications, bulletin or articles are read by the decision makers and movers in your public speaking niche/topic.
2. Write a few short articles that are appropriate for their publications and make sure that your contact information is listed at the end of the article.
3. Send your articles to editors.
Have a long-term plan: Starting a new business isn’t that easy; people get so excited about the business and think it will quickly take off immediately. But really, starting a business always takes longer than we anticipated. When you decide to go into public speaking, you can start it as a part time career and make a plan for it to make a transition into full time speaking. This will allow you to make your mistakes on a lower level and correct them early enough and build your confidence as a public speaker.
By following this process, you will see that your public speaking ability will improve and tremendously increase in your public speaking bookings and you will be recognised as an expert.
